Fertilization News and Research

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Viewpoints: Today's 'personhood' vote in Miss.; reactions to Romney's health care plan

What about in vitro fertilization, a process that both creates and discards embryos? What new rights would be afforded to a fetus, and how would those rights affect or compete with the rights of the woman who carries it? Would a woman who has an abortion be guilty of murder and subject to capital punishment? ... In their quest to ban abortion in Mississippi, the amendment's drafters appear to have rushed past such concerns.

9 Nov 2011

On Election Day, watching key ballot issues in Ohio, Mississippi

Voters across the nation will decide a host of statewide initiatives Tuesday and elect governors in Mississippi and Kentucky ... In battleground Ohio, voters will decide ... whether to prohibit people from being required to buy health insurance as part of the national health care overhaul.

9 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: Weighing the ballot measures in Miss. and Ohio; the super committee's task

For all their sincerity and fervor, proponents of the personhood movement represent a small minority nationwide. In Gallup polls, support for a total abortion ban is almost exactly where it was in 1973 -;at just over 20%, despite a rise in backing for limitations. Most people certainly don't want homicide charges brought against women who choose to have abortions or doctors who perform them.

8 Nov 2011

Abortion and 'personhood' on GOP campaign agenda

State-level initiatives to restrict access to abortions help make social issues a major focus of the Republican presidential nomination contest.

7 Nov 2011

State roundup: Puerto Rico settles disability battle with Feds

Puerto Rico has reached an agreement with the U.S. government ending a 12-year legal battle to improve the island's health system for the mentally disabled, local justice officials said Thursday. Federal officials had accused the U.S. territory of abusing and neglecting hundreds of mentally disabled people by not providing food, medication, adequate housing, therapy or mental health care.

5 Nov 2011

Longer looks: A doctor's dilemma on C-sections; apology for a death sparked a hospital's change

I was the obstetrician on hospital duty that Sunday morning, so I introduced myself and learned that the patient, pregnant with her first child, wished to have as few interventions as possible. Respecting her desire, we decided to reevaluate her in a few hours to see how her labor had progressed. But would she get her wish? ... the odds were greater than 1 in 4 that this woman would end up not with the natural delivery she wanted, but with a surgical delivery in one of the two operating rooms down the hall.

4 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: Super committee clock is ticking; replacing CLASS; 'personhood' amendment in Miss.

There are only three weeks left for the Congressional supercommittee to come up with a plan to reduce the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion, and there is no sign that the panel is anywhere close to reaching an agreement. Only one side, in fact, seems to be trying -; the Democrats -; and it is being far too accommodating, given the fierce obstructionism of the other side, the Republicans.

2 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: Judd Gregg on revamping entitlements and taxes; John Breaux on slashing Medicare fraud; Medicaid limits on hospital stays

Consider this. As of this year, every other household in America will have at least one person in it who is receiving an entitlement benefit, according to the Census Bureau. As of this year, fewer than half of the Americans who have earned income will pay income taxes on that income.

1 Nov 2011

Infertility treatment linked to borderline ovarian tumors

New research shows that women who undergo ovarian stimulation to produce extra eggs for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) are at increased risk for a type of growth known as “borderline ovarian tumors”.

30 Oct 2011

Longer looks: Looking for the inventor of the individual mandate, Miss. abortion referendum may have wider effects

In the course of defending the health care bill he passed in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney told Newt Gingrich that he got the idea for the individual mandate -- a rule dictating that everyone must buy health insurance or pay a penalty -- from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C. think tank. Is it really responsible for creating the policy that is now so anathema to conservatives?

28 Oct 2011

Longer looks: Miss. ballot-initiative on abortion; personal fortune may have helped Herman Cain battle cancer; for doctors, breaking up is hard to do

One evening in late September John Perkins, a veteran of the civil-rights movement, attended a rally at a Baptist church in Jackson in support of what he called "a total justice issue," … It was concerned with Amendment 26, a measure on Mississippi's ballot this November that defines a person as being "every human being from the moment of fertilisation, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof". The reason for the measure is straightforward; its consequences less so. The Supreme Court, in its landmark Roe v Wade ruling in 1973, held that the right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy in the first trimester was guaranteed by her constitutional right to privacy.

14 Oct 2011

New technique could give a preview of which eggs are likely to make the most viable embryos

Given the stakes of in vitro fertilization, prospective parents and their doctors need the best information they can get about the eggs they will extract, attempt to fertilize, and implant. New research at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island has found a way to see which genes each egg cell is expressing without harming it.

7 Oct 2011

Viable non-invasive, drug-free alternative to IVF for infertile couples

A new study published in European Obstetrics & Gynaecology shows that the DuoFertility monitor and service used for six months gives the same chance of pregnancy as a cycle of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) for many infertile couples.

23 Sep 2011

Researcher identifies genetic mutation responsible for adermatoglyphia

Like DNA, fingerprints are unique to each person or set of identical twins. That makes them a valuable identification tool for everything from crime detection to international travel. But what happens when the tips of our fingers are missing those distinctive patterns of ridges?

19 Sep 2011

Ariz. abortion curbs go into effect; Miss. voters consider plan to limit abortions

Planned Parenthood of Arizona will not appeal a state-court ruling that allows this 2009 measure to take effect.

14 Sep 2011

Cook Medical introduces Otrieva Tapered Ovum Aspiration Needle

A new needle for ovum collection is now available to reproductive endocrinologists and embryologists: the Otrieva Tapered Ovum Aspiration Needle, which Cook Medical launches today. The Otrieva needle features a tapering process that results in a consistent bevel designed to allow precise ovum collection and less pain and bleeding during aspiration, as clinical studies of similar devices have demonstrated.

12 Sep 2011

Mayo Clinic develops genome-based immunization strategy against feline AIDS

Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a genome-based immunization strategy to fight feline AIDS and illuminate ways to combat human HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The goal is to create cats with intrinsic immunity to the feline AIDS virus. The findings -- called fascinating and landmark by one reviewer -- appear in the current online issue of Nature Methods.

12 Sep 2011

Dad's stress can affect unborn children

Does Dad's stress affect his unborn children? According to the results of a new study in Elsevier's Biological Psychiatry, it seems the answer may be "yes, but it's complicated".

31 Aug 2011

New fertilized cells narrowly avoid degenerating into fatal chaos

Research based at Princeton University has revealed that newly fertilized cells only narrowly avoid degenerating into fatal chaos. At the same time, scientists have discovered that embryos have acquired a mechanism to contain this dangerous instability, a finding that could help biologists unravel other mysteries about the first hours of life.

24 Aug 2011

Scientists uncover how human egg captures sperm to begin fertilisation process

Researchers have uncovered exactly how a human egg captures an incoming sperm to begin the fertilisation process, in a new study published this week in the journal Science.

19 Aug 2011